Indoor Floor Time

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The Codfather

Junior Guinea Pig
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Can the guinea pigs have free rome of a room or is a pen better....also, should there toys, houses, food etc....be added to the space for comfort ?
 
I let mine have free roaming time in the hallway.

Ensure there's no wires hanging around or anywhere they can get stuck. I usually put a tray of hay out, with cardboard boxes or tunnels.
 
I put them in the kitchen (it's the only large pig safe room with no wires....and they can pee where they want) I put out a few cardboard boxes with holes in, tunnels, hay and a pigloo or two. They usually get their morning or evening veggies then too so they associate it with good thing when I say "out time, boys". I give them a couple of hours a day out and it's great to sit on the work top with a cup of tea and watch them zoom and rumble :)
 
Teddy roams in my own bedroom (where his cage is) and recently he began to explore outside of it, going trough the hallway until the living room. Always supervised by me.

He is a really really curious piggy, and he's quite skittish, but he seems to trust me enough to follow me when he is curious about something. When he raises his nose up, I know that he wants to go in that direction, but he doesn't dare to do it on his own, so I go first, and then he comes where I am. I love it. :wub:

I sometimes put a wooden barrel roller but most of the times he ignores it hahaha
 
I have limited room, so use small animal fencing( available from Amazon) and link several lengths to make a big pen on top of old towels, add several boxes, toys, hay and a water bowl! Mind you, my foster pigs are kept in large C&C pens and zoom around those popcorning away a few times a day. They do like exploring somewhere different tho.
 
Mine don't exactly have floor time (assuming this is no different) mine have bed time where they run around on the bed. Though they do sometimes run around the whole bedroom, but like hiding under the bed too much!
 
I have the pigs in a large pen in the living room with tunnels, hideys, hay and water.
We have no place in the house that is safe to free roam, there is either something to chew that's dangerous, wires and cabinets which they could easily get stuck under.
 
Galaxy&nibbles said:
Mine don't exactly have floor time (assuming this is no different) mine have bed time where they run around on the bed. Though they do sometimes run around the whole bedroom, but like hiding under the bed too much!
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How big is your cage?
Floor time is essential especially if their cage is minimum/average.
 
I'll just measure, the bottom layer is bare from food and hay etc as they have it higher up so they have a lot of space to run around on the bottom... It is approx 155cm by 58cm. Is a double bed not enough space for floor time then?
 
Run time is not essential for all piggies. It depends on their personality. My pair of boys are wary of run time because of all the different smells. Its good for them to have a chance to run if they're inclined to though. However my pair of girls don't benefit from it at all! Very nervous piggies who consistently are frightened by new things might not appreciate being in a run. My girls are simply too nervous and its not something that can improved enough for them to actually enjoy being out. They won't run anywhere except in fear! It might be worth getting a metal run which you can either pen them in with or put around the bed. I use mine to fence off the kitchen which is part of the living room :)
 
The Codfather said:
Can the guinea pigs have free rome of a room or is a pen better....also, should there toys, houses, food etc....be added to the space for comfort ?
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My piggies free range in a kitchen with newspaper or a blanket down. They stick to the blanket but I have to put tubes or Hidey holes down otherwise they will just hide in a corner! Then I go to them and follow each piggie around the kitchen
letting the piggies of the newspaper. I place the piggies in a different part of the kitchen and Poppy finds Maisy and squeaks a lot! ( Happy Squeak! ) :lol!:
 
My girls have their floor time in a large pen in the kitchen with fleeces underneath. They don't have free range as we have wooden/laminate flooring throughout and they don't particularly like to walk on it. I'd also be petrified someone stood on one of them by accident! I pop in a box stuffed with hay, some of their cosey items and boxes and tunnels, water and nuggets as they are out their for most of the day :)
 
Claire W said:
I allow mine supervised roam time in the hallway (I have two cats) although my piggies are very lazy and much prefer just to flop down and snooze
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lol actually glad to hear that because one of mine just sits where i put her! I'm always prodding her to move and get some exercise!
 
I'm very nervous about giving my babies free range in a room. I'd love to be able to put them down and let them explore but what if they went into a corner behind something and decided not to come out? Any tips on this? I'd love to be able to bring them into the living room as this is where I spend my time in the evening s but we have carpet. Any ideas?
 
My three have floor time with a large fleece I made lined with towels. They are in an enclosed pen with six sides which can be made quite big.
 
Is that the bunny business one? I bought one today from amazon and it says the floor material is waterproof so it can go on my carpet in the living room. That's what I'm hoping anyway!
 
It's this pen http://www.rosewoodpet.com/catalogue/range.aspx?gid=42289. The flooring I made myself with a large piece of fleece and sewed towels in the middle. Then put puppy pads underneath where they are most likely to pee.
My ideal is to have them running free range in the kitchen on lino but I am living with my parents at the moment and my mum would freak out if they did a wee. Pansy left a little present in the weighing scale bowl tonight so that got washed immediately.
 
Mine have free run of downstairs, except wherever the dogs are while they are out, I have a small house and nowhere that they can get lost. They love their time on the floor and it depends on the time of day how active they are. They always go nuts during their evening run where they will charge about our living room, exploring and climbing over anything and everything. We often end up watching them rather than the tv!
 
Not sure if its because they dont like the feel of the laminate flooring......but I sit them on the floor on there lap towel to give them free range and they will not leave the towel......I suppose its because they are babies and new to the environment.
 
The Codfather said:
Not sure if its because they dont like the feel of the laminate flooring......but I sit them on the floor on there lap towel to give them free range and they will not leave the towel......I suppose its because they are babies and new to the environment.
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When I put my girls on fleece, they do not come off the fleece. I have had 1 of my girls for 4 years now and she still doesn't come off the fleece. we have laminate flooring and if I put them down on it they don't walk on it much. Much prefer to be on the fleece as its not so slidey
 
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